A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
A headshot of AIADO instructor Jessica Charlesworth.

On This Page

Jessica Charlesworth

Lecturer

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

BA, 2002, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK; MA, 2007, Royal College of Art, London, UK Exhibitions: Venice Architecture Biennial, Italy; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Piknic, South Korea; Media Majlis, Qatar; Public Works Gallery, Chicago; Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon; Science Gallery Dublin; Istanbul Design Biennial; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Collections: DePaul Art Museum, MAK Vienna Awards: NEW INC Year 9 Membership, New Museum, New York; USAGraham Foundation for the Arts; Canada Council for the Arts; 2023 Artist-In-Residence Project Space at Headlands Center for the Arts Bibliography: "Biennale Architettura 2021 – Parsons & Charlesworth," BiennaleChannel; "Italia: viaggio nella bellezza – Ricostruire insieme," RAI Cultura TV; DAMN°Magazine: Take Your Time, No.79 Issue; "Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 Review," The Guardian Publications: "The Last Object On Earth," Mapping The Horizon, New Suns, Issue 1, United States Artists; Tomorrow Anew, 2020; "Memories from the Year 2030: Contact Clubs," The Gradient, Walker Art Center, 2020; "From the Bauhaus to Speculative Design: A Lineage of Socially Motivated Practice," Bauhaus Futures, MIT Press, 2019

Personal Statement

Jessica Charlesworth (she/her/they) is a British/Canadian transdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator. She co-founded the studio Parsons and Charlesworth in 2014 with Tim Parsons upon relocating to Chicago from the UK. A master's graduate of the Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Art in London, Jessica explores the speculative impacts of emerging technologies on future society and culture. Her artistic journey is anchored in extensive research and critical inquiry, utilizing art and design as powerful tools to navigate the intricate landscapes of social, ecological, and technological challenges. With over 15 years of teaching experience, Jessica has created futures-oriented classes, mentored students, lectured and independently organized workshops at universities and education institutions including Harvard Business School, University of Pennsylvania, California College of the Arts, University of Michigan, ArtCenter College of Design, Central Saint Martins, Glasgow School of Art, Royal College of Art, Bath School of Art & Design, St. Joost School of Art & Design, Netherlands and Moholy Nagy University, Budapest. She is a part-time faculty member in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has collaborated with artists, futurists, scientists, and think tanks including Foresight (UK) and the Institute for the Future (US).

Parsons & Charlesworth is an art and design studio that develops tangible worlds as discursive tools for critically appraising urgent issues. Co-founded by Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons, the studio’s investigative, research-driven, speculative approach uses installation, sculpture, designed objects, writing, photography, and digital media to explore key social, ecological, and technological challenges of our time. Together, they develop new ways of understanding and interacting with alternative futures, addressing concerns such as the ecological crisis and the future of work through their collaborative world-building projects. Their current project, Multispecies Inc., involves field research and in-depth conversations with specialists in biology, climate science, and climate modeling. This endeavor manifests as a series of narratives and objects around a fictional group of ecologists striving to cohabit with other species using advanced technologies. They are recent NEW INC members on the Creative Science Track as part of the New Museum mentorship incubator program and both teach at SAIC.

Work

Video

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

AlterFutures Studio is a studio course in which students question received expectations about `the future¿ and use design, writing and visualization methods to propose compelling alternatives. The course will allow students to think through, articulate, and bring to life, critical and provocative narratives for alternative futures.

By studying the tools and approaches of speculative and critical design, and design fiction, alongside literary and cinematic forms of futuring, the course builds awareness in, and enables practice of, contemporary techniques used to communicate alternative futures.

AlterFutures Studio will be made up of three projects to be presented in a culminating course critique with complimentary readings and discussions each focusing on a particular subject matter and approach relating to emerging technologies and potential impacts on society and culture.

The works of designers and artists Dunne & Raby, Superflux, Atelier Van Lieshout, and Lucy Orta, Noam Toran, Extrapolation Factory, and Cohen Van Balen will act as primary points of reference for our explorations in this course.

Students will create physical prototypes and use VR tools to develop artifacts and worlds that express their ideas.

Class Number

1272

Credits

3

Description

Research is the foundation of an informed design process and this lab helps students understand the ways in which research can add value to the practice of design. Students will be introduced to a variety of methods, strategies, frameworks and tools for the capturing, synthesis and translation of varied research material. By demonstrating how primary and secondary methods can be utilized, this class provides a practical guide to navigating the ways in which research can be integrated into the design process as a source of inspiration, a method of knowledge building, and a means of testing assumptions. You must be a Master of Design in Designed Objects student to enroll in this course.

Readings and references will vary but have included: Design Research Through Practice: From the Lab, Field, and Showroom, Ilpo Koskinen, John Zimmerman, Thomas Binder, Johan Redstrom, Stephan Wensveen, Elsevier, 2011
Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights, Steve Portigal, Rosenfield, 2013
Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams, Jim Kalbach,
Research for Designers: A Guide to Methods and Practice, Gjoko Muratovski, Sage, 2016'

Each class will typically consist of a lecture, discussion, critique, and/or in-class activities followed with assignments to be completed by the next class. Readings will be assigned to supplement lectures and inform discussions.

Class Number

1390

Credits

3

Description

The subject of this studio seminar is Futuring, more specifically, how the field of futuring relates to imagining humane, sustainable, and desirable futures from the vantage points of designers, producers and users. In addition to learning about the practice, purpose and application of futuring, students will gain knowledge of related fields such as trend analysis, extrapolation and forecasting. We will explore the new roles, contexts and approaches for design in relation to the impacts, implications and future possibilities of existing and emerging technologies and pioneering science. The seminar aims to move beyond the problem-solving paradigm to position the designer as a researcher with a distinct point-of-view who uses design to speculate, understand and engage with the world. Lectures and workshops by visiting experts on current and future advances in materials, technology, production, energy, and behavior will provide insight, knowledge and inspiration for the students? independent research. Each student will develop and deliver a complete future report that anticipates and interprets the impact and potential of next generation materials, methods, processes, services and supply chains.

Class Number

1402

Credits

3